Court fixes date to hear Lai Mohammed over alleged N2.5bn NBC Fraud

#TrackNigeria- The former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has been scheduled to appear before a Federal High Court, Abuja, on the 2nd of October, 2019 to explain why he approved the release of N2.5 billion Federal Government Digital Switch-Over (DSO) seed grant to a private company, Pinnacle Communication Limited.

Mohammed’s appearance is pursuant to
a motion filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Commission (ICPC), before Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa, in which the
Commission prayed the court to allow him to be called as a witness.

With this ruling, the former
Minister is expected to tell the court why a recommendation for the approval of
the seed grant from the Director General of the National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC), Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, who is facing charges of abuse of office
and money laundering from ICPC, was approved against the government White Paper
guiding the process.

Kawu had on several occasions, told
the court that he did not break any law by releasing the seed grant to a
private company after getting due approval from the Minister.

At the resumed hearing, the court
also gave permission for the temporal release of the international passports of
the Chairman of Pinnacle Communication Limited, Lucky Omoluwa and the Chief
Operating Officer, Dipo Onifade, to enable them travel abroad for an
international conference.

Their counsel, Alex Iziyon (SAN),
had filed a motion praying for the release of the passports to enable Omoluwa
and Onifade, who are also facing charges of money laundering, to travel to the
United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands between July and September,
2019.

The motion for the release of the
passports was not opposed by counsel to ICPC, Ebenezer Shogunle, who told the
court that he had complied with court directives by verifying the addresses of
the sureties of the accused persons.

Justice Giwa then ruled that the
passports be released to them on a temporal basis by the Deputy Court
Registrar, and be returned to the court on or before the 25th of September,
2019.

She further ruled that their
sureties must submit sworn affidavits to the court to present themselves for
detention if any of the accused persons fail to return to the country.

The case was then adjourned to 2nd October,
2019 for continuation of trial.